1.—Field of the Invention
Embodiments described herein relate to networked sensors. More particularly, embodiments described herein are related to a network of video sources that can be accessed through a network streaming service using a video player.
2.—Description of Related Art
Hardware and software used to setup and manage networked systems have advanced considerably. Web servers now typically operate in a massively parallel fashion, and storage continues to increase in size and decrease in cost. Faster switches using advanced routing techniques have become pervasive, while the bandwidth of data transmission also keeps increasing. Such technological advances have created opportunities for sharing large amounts of information over an ever-expanding network. Concurrently, increasingly sophisticated techniques for analyzing the shared information provide valuable metrics. Furthermore, many networked systems have the capability of reporting their geographic locations with precision.
In the prior art, a typical online application or service that includes one or more embedded video streams is supported by a single broadcasting entity or publisher. Such an application or service seldom involves streams from multiple live video sources (e.g., cameras). In another prior art application, multiple users may upload video content to a network, to be viewed at later times by other users. However, in such an application, the video content is of a previous time, and does not provide real-time information of current events. Furthermore, many existing online video applications allow the general public to broadcast or view their contents without restrictions, such that there is little or no content supervision or user management. Such applications expose broadcasting users to risk, and viewers to unwanted content. Moreover, in current video-sharing networks, there is little or no capability for the content creator or broadcaster to derive value from the video broadcast.
Current video player, embedded applications or ‘widgets’ running on web interfaces (e.g., a web browser) are considered anonymous because the user or viewer is not identified. Thus, even when an application server offers the ability to ‘vote’ on the quality of a video stream or to provide input from the viewer, the viewer remains anonymous. This ability to take anonymous action by a viewer exposes the network to abuse by malicious or interested parties.
One state-of-the-art online video provider offers a number of widgets or applications which provide at a website controls and features applicable to some aspects of the video content. For example, one widget allows a user to provide a feedback on the quality of the content. However, these widgets or applications are expected to be separately integrated and managed by the website developer who intends to provide the website visitors the use of such controls and features from its web pages. However, in such a model, any time a feature is made available, the website developer needs to incorporate into the current stream the new widget or application that encapsulates the feature and ensure the new application works properly with the existing applications. This process adds an extra layer of design complexity that deters the fast adoption of new features to the widget.
The Internet has facilitated broadcast of recorded and live video content. However, in current systems and applications a consumer cannot readily determine whether or not a particular video stream is live. When the video stream is not live, the consumer cannot readily determine when the video stream was recorded. Similarly, it is difficult to determine where the events in the video stream took place, or were recorded. The uncertainty in such information diminishes the value of all video sources, as the origins of the information may not be determined, nor can fabricated video sources be identified. Therefore, both viewers and broadcasters are penalized. As a result, the perceived value of a current online video stream depends to some degree on the trustworthiness of the publisher, which must be built up over time with a sizeable viewership. Many potentially useful sources are thus left out of this ‘trust’ domain. Indeed, particular individuals and small entities may provide valuable video streams but have no easy way of establishing their trustworthiness without sponsorship of established publishers, who may extract onerous contract agreements from these individuals or small entities.
What is needed is a secured and managed environment to allow users or viewers to access networked video sources using an interactive toolbar controlled by a single application run by a service provider.